Years ago I dated a bouncer who told me that his primary job was effective observation and communication. He believed that under normal circumstances, if he ever had to lay a hand on anyone, he’d failed. I think the job of any leader is similar, we shouldn’t need the “stick”, particularly during raids. If we do, we need to look to why that situation arose in the first place, because there’s a weak spot somewhere in our policies, recruiting, loot system, etc. I know that sometimes under extreme circumstances our members “act out” in game to vent stresses from Real Life, but again… if the guild culture has been communicated and managed effectively, it should be very rare.

I don’t tell them what to do. I tell them where I want to go, and they set about making that happen.

That’s great! Good for you. We’re also blessed with excellent tanks, and run things pretty much the same way. We have a tank lead at each raid (it rotates), and they assign tanks, mark trash, and generally handle the clearing. The way it works out is that our tank lead handles tactics and our raid leader handles strategy (and some of the cat-herding). We also have a (rotating) heal lead each raid, so the raid leader really doesn’t have to micro-manage often. I think this started informally at first, from seeing what I did when I was raid leader. I simply delegated out as much as possible: Tank lead, Heal lead, DKP loot awarding, Trash looting, Attendance… by now it’s just routine for all our raid leaders to pass out those jobs at the start of every raid. It’s really helpful in taking a lot of the pressure off the leader and letting them focus on the strategies for the night – and it’s more fun for everyone.

And thank you right back for encouraging me!